hot water trouble!

[Inge]

We have solar panels and when the suns shining the water is always boiling. But when we need to munually turn it on or set a timer it doesnt heat up. Wer in a new build so im going to the sales office tomorow to see if a builder is around to chat too, but just wandering if I hit reset on the boiler (controls heating and hot water) could that help? OH doesnt want to as hes worried it will mess it up more but Iv had to wash LO twice using the kettle for hot water and thats two times too many! The timer has been on for nearly 2 hours and the water isnt hot at all yet Just posting this in case any one can offer advice before tomorow!

 

[writemeadream]

Hi
My hubby installed our solar so he has a bit of an understanding.

If your hot water cylinder is a twin coil which most are, there will be a pipe coming in at the bottom which will feel cold. a pipe coming off the top which should be hot and near to the bottom two pipes coming in at the same level and about 3/4 of the way up two more pipes coming in.
When the sun is shining and the solar is working the bottom two should get hot and so should the pipe coming off the very top.

So when you put your boiler onto hot water, after 5 mins put you hand on either of the two pipes that join the cylinder that come 3/4 of the way up.

These two pipes should now be hot or warm.

IF they are not then your boiler is not actually heating your hot water tank and it has a problem with its motorised valve.

A modern boiler should be able to heat the top of the cylinder within about 15 minutes.
You can try the reset button it wont harm anything and if it is just a sticky valve this might be enough to kick it back into life.
But certainly mention it to the sales office as this is a recall and they should send someone round to attend to it.
Also a last thought does the boiler fire up when you set it to run either heating or hot water? If not then the reset might help or it might be a problem with the boiler.
Hope this helps a little:

 

[Inge]

it fires up when we put the heating on but not when the hot water is turnt on. Our neighbour has said shes had to call them out a few times to fix her boiler so might need to do the same.

 

[Inge]

Our immersion heater is turned off at the mains switch.. if we turn it on should it make the boiler heat water? The council came out and just re set the pressure and told us how to turn it on but the switch has always been off for the heater.
Sorry but Iv no clue on things like this - theres still no hot water and as the sun isnt out at all lately the solar panels arent much good either!

 

[writemeadream]

Hi
I replied to you the other night and it hasn't posted but was wondering how you were getting on.
The immersion is just a separate way to heat your water as a back up.It is an expensive way of heating it but helpful if you are desperate. It generally costs twice as much as running off gas.
If your system needed repressurising then it can be a sign that there is a leak in the system somewhere and not acceptable if it is new.
It could be within the boiler so not obvious.
When the council guys came out did they wait to see if you had any hot water ?
When you say they showed you how to switch it on is that the immersion ?
Our solar is pretty useless too in this weather but even on a cold but sunny winters day it should still work well.
OH says it really sounds like the boiler is not getting the signal to change to hot water which points to the programmer on the wall not working properly.
Hope this helps

 

[Inge]

nah he didnt wait just reset the pressure and went. our system is a potterton promax sl and iv read the manual and apparently it just heats the heating and has a seperate hot water cyclinder - the one in the bedroom for heating water. Need to phone council tomorow and actually get the to explain how the hot water is heated manually. Iv looked in the manual for the cylinder and boiler and no explanation Our neighbours have had trouble with their systems too and have had to do call outs so many times

 

[writemeadream]

Hi
Never heard of these boilers and on looking up they state they are a heating only boiler which is confusing.
So it looks like they expect you to rely on solar and use the immersion as a top up.
Depending on the tank set up the immersion might be set to heat the top 1/3 of the tank which should take maybe half an hour. You just dont want to be leaving it on for hours. Some might be fitted with a timer which is more helpful.
It's bad not letting you know how the system works.
Hope you get this sorted

 

[Inge]

well the cylinder has a digital display at the bottom of the tank and and after around 30 mins the display turned off so Im guessing it had heated the water and even though the switch was still on the pipes had cooled but the water was running hot still hopefully have it sorted tomorow thanks for your help